Not just for that reason. 747 Classics are getting old and are becoming very expensive to maintain etc. Lots of Airlines are gradually phasing out or planning to phase out their 747 classics soon. Eg Qantas.

The retirement of the classic 747's at CX was no doubt accelerated by the Asian economic crisis. With regional routes within Asia being the main focus of those planes, the drop in passenger volume during that period basically forced CX to cutback on capacity quickly. Since few things bleeds cash faster than flying empty 747's, those classics were naturally the first to go!!

What a difference a couple of years make!! Now CX is essentially scrambling around to find more capacity (leasing 340's from Air China; buying the original 777 from Boeing, etc.). However, there is no chance that those 747 classics will be rejoining Cathay, since their last flight engineer had already left with the retirement of the last 743 (B-HON).

As an early post stated, their retirement was accelerated due to the Asian economic crisis. If it had not been for the Asian downturn, the 747 "Classics" would have stayed in the fleet for a longer period of time. CX has just invested a large amount of capital into updating the interior and IFT systems. I don't think that we will see a passenger 747 -200 fly for CX again. They continue to operate several 747-200Fs though.

"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid." D. Eisenhower